I looked into the wood chip idea I just got a fresh truckload of them for Spring. A few things you can expect: The chips are rougher and coarser than store bought. If this bothers you, you can throw down a thick layer of the cheap stuff and then a thin coat of expensive ones on top. they come in various colors. After a while if you dig around in it you may see white/ off white threads running around in it, or worms crawling around down there, or even mushrooms on top of it. These are decomposers. They are busy changing it from wood chips into plant food. They won't bother you or your plants, they only like dead things. The chips start off a brightish white and fade slowly through grey and get soft and blackish as they meld into the soil. The only concern I have with wood chips is the runoff where the next grand canyon is forming -- it is a veritable river when it gets flowing A valid concern. Can you run a heap of rocks down the canyon for the water to flow through without moving them? Maybe have a series of lashed stick dams to let water through but hold the chips? Lay branches across it? I read that with chips you normally put down 4-6 inches of it on bare dirt. Would that be enough to prevent rushing water from carrying it away? I'm not sure. Or would I be better off building a temporary drainage system to route the water under the tree bed until the plants can grow outward and hold the soil together? Maybe lay a perforated pipe on top of the ground, bury it in chips? I guess I wrongfully assumed that I would need to plant the pachysandra all over the area, but your suggestion about letting it grow outward over several years sounds much more logical. There are various ways to handle this. The rings were meant to give you something decorative, something orderly to look at while it's developing. You could plant them in a loose even scatter across the whole bed. This won't look like much at first but might be faster. You could buy and install more plants whenever it's convenient (you just move the chips out of the way and plant) You could subdivide and move the existing plants every few years. You could plant once and let them do their thing. They'll all work. Looking at the the second picture I see I misjudged something. I had thought the trees were centered in the bed. They're not, they're along one edge. This means a ring around each tree won't be starting them in the middle, it'll be starting along one side. This is not a deal breaker. You could do rings around the trees and start some sprinkled along the left side of that second picture so it keeps up with the tree side. Patience will be key. The rule of thump with Pachysandra is: The first year it sleeps. The second year it creeps. The third year it leaps. Thank you again for your reply. You've definitely given me a silver lining on what I thought would be a daunting and expensive project! I love it when this Internet stuff works. 8-)

I have decided to start a pick your own Strawberry, Raspberry, & Blackberry patch. It is 240' long and 60'wide, I need to be able to kill weeds with some liquid killer but not hurt the strawberries. I'm tried of pulling weeds, you can only do that for so long, and the patches are only going to get bigger. Anyone have any ideas.

I just blithely did a little search for you sue, thinking I would come up with all sorts of options, & I'm really dismayed to discover that the felt pads of yore are....well, just that....yore :( I have several pads made of felt & horsehair that I've had for many, many years - I had a huge horsehair pad that I just keep cutting to fit smaller rugs. And I expect them to last for many more years. Which is why I haven't had to shop for one for a long time. Everything now is synthetic, but the good news is that you can still find synthetic felt pads - hopefully they are no less damaging to your floors than the felt pads are. Still, check out your local rug dealers - the ones who sell area rugs, & see what they have. The problem with most synthetics is that they bond to your flooring & create damage that can be very hard to repair w/o resurfacing. And/or the pad is too thick & the carpet gets dents that turn into worn fiber. And/or the pad does nothing but keep the carpet from slipping & ruin the floor underneath at the same time. BTW, if your carpet is a thick one, you're probably better off w/o a pad. HTH, & good luck!

Thanks for those layout options artistsharonva. I am going with option 1. Or perhaps option 2 if I can’t find a large enough rug. Good advice! :)